David McCaffrey is a distinguished teaching professor of public administration and policy at the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. His research interests include the design and behavior of regulatory and self regulatory systems, especially in the financial markets, and processes of cooperation and collaboration.

Among his publications are Wall Street Polices Itself: How Securities Firms Manage the Legal Hazards of Competitive Pressures (with David W. Hart) (Oxford University Press, 1998), The Politics of Nuclear Power: A History of the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991) and OSHA and the Politics of Health Regulation (Plenum Publishing, 1982).